Fail Loudly with osd_cat and autotest

written by edavis on February 10th, 2008 @ 03:19 PM

A key to Test Driven Development is frequently run tests. These tests are used to judge the health of a project. Like in a hospital, when things deteriorate we have to be alerted right away.

Ruby developers use autotest to monitor and run their test suite in the background. One problem with autotest is that the results are printed to the console. No alert, no notification, no loud failure. OSX users are able to hook autotest up to growl, allowing growl to flash test results above all the windows.

Unfortunately, growl is only available for OSX, I need a Linux solution. I found someone using Knotify with autotest but the result window was tiny and easy to miss. I needed something bigger and more noticeable.

I remembered a friend used a program called osd_cat to build a volume control UI for his Linux DVR. osd_cat (On Screen Display cat) is a command line program that will print text above all your windows, similar to growl. Unlike Knotify, osd_cat can print text large and bright red.

In order to use osd_cat we need to install the program, called xosd-bin in Debian, and then hook it up to Autotest. When autotest starts it will read a Ruby file called .autotest. Using that file, I was able to hook up autotest to osd_cat. My current autotest file is adapted from several sources online and works with both RSpecs and Test::Unit.

Now I got a loud and alarming message whenever my tests fails. Not a puny little alert window but a big honking in your face “Something broke!” message:

Failed autotest

Fixed autotest

.autotest file: 

#!/usr/bin/ruby
# NOTE Copy this to your home folder as .autotest
#
# Originally from http://wincent.com/knowledge-base/Setting_up_autotest_to_use_Growl
#
# Modifications:
#   * Changed from Growl to osd_cat on Linux
#     [Eric Davis http://theadmin.org] 
#   * Minor refactoring to use .autotest_images directory 
#     [Geoffrey Grosenbach http://peepcode.com]
#   * Test::Unit compatibility [Pat Nakajima] 
# 
require 'autotest/timestamp' # time plugin 

module Autotest::OsdCat
  # Use xlsfonts to find the different fonts
  FONT="-bitstream-charter-bold-r-normal--33-240-100-100-p-206-iso8859-1"

  # Will display the message on the top of the screen centered, adjust these numbers to suit.
  POSITION="top"             # top|middle|bottom
  POSITION_OFFSET="0"        # Pixels from position to display (think CSS margin)
  ALIGN="center"             # left|right|center

  def self.osd_cat msg, color='green'
    osd_command = "echo #{msg.inspect} | osd_cat --font=#{FONT} --shadow=0 --pos=#{POSITION} -o #{POSITION_OFFSET} --delay=2 --outline=4 --align=#{ALIGN} -c #{color}"

    # osd_cat blocks so start a new thread, otherwise Autotest will wait
    t1 = Thread.new do
      `#{osd_command}`  
    end
  end

  def self.osd_cat_fail(output)
    osd_cat "#{output}", 'red'
  end

  def self.osd_cat_pass(output)
    osd_cat "#{output}"
  end

  Autotest.add_hook :ran_command do |at|

    results = [at.results].flatten.join("\n")

    if results.include? 'tests'
      output = results.slice(/(\d+)\s+tests?,\s*(\d+)\s+assertions?,\s*(\d+)\s+failures?(,\s*(\d+)\s+errors)?/)
      if output
        $~[3].to_i + $~[5].to_i > 0 ? osd_cat_fail(output) : osd_cat_pass(output)
      end
    else
      output = results.slice(/(\d+)\s+examples?,\s*(\d+)\s+failures?(,\s*(\d+)\s+not implemented)?/)
      if output
        $~[2].to_i > 0 ? osd_cat_fail(output) : osd_cat_pass(output)
      end
    end
  end

end


# From: http://www.ridaalbarazi.com/blog/2007/04/05/autotest-growling-in-red-green/
class Autotest 
  # All code borrowed from:
  # http://www.robsanheim.com/2006/08/07/hacking-green-bar-color-output-into-autotest/

  BAR = "=" * 80

  # filter output for colorized green/red bar
  def filter_output(results)
    filtered = ""
    results.each do |line|

      if line =~ /\d+ tests, \d+ assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors/
        line = "\e[32m#{BAR}\n#{$&}\e[0m\n\n"
      elsif line =~ /\d+ tests, \d+ assertions, (\d+) failures, (\d+) errors/
        if $1 != 0 || $2 != 0
          line =  "\e[31m#{BAR}\n#{$&}\e[0m\n\n"
        end
      end
      filtered << line
    end
    filtered
  end

  def run_tests
    find_files_to_test # failed + changed/affected
    cmd = make_test_cmd @files_to_test

    puts cmd

    @results = `#{cmd}`
    hook :ran_command
    puts filter_output(@results)

    handle_results(@results)
  end
end

Eric

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Comments

  • Geir on February 20, 2008 @ 07:19 AM

    Hey, that’s pretty cool. I like the brutality of those huge red letters!

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